On a slow Sunday we have some slow news coming out, including this rear render of the Nokia Lumia 929 destined for Verizon. Yesterday we had the front side leak and now you can see it juxtaposed against its rear.

Anything else new to report? Not really, just that the 1080P Windows Phone 8 device will arrive in Red too in addition to White and Black, which should be a nice change. Other than that, we still have the 20 MP PureView camera on the back and presumably the size is at least 5-inches for the display, though other specific details remain elusive.

Judging by the size of the ffc and the three buttons it looks like this will be 4.7" 16x9 display (same as 928 but slightly taller) nicer display, but no xenon flash. But a worthy upgrade for the holiday I'd say. But definatly not a "phablet"

I don't understand. What is going on? Is this the true 920/5/8 successor, the new flagship device or what? 920 (and 920 slim editions) were great but we're in 2013-14 season now. When can we expect the new flagship lumia?

I hope MIcrosoft does away with all these random nubmers and variants. I don't understand Nokia's plan or take on so many different phones, carrier exclusives & carrier variants. 920, 925, 928, 929, 1520, 521, 520...seriously. Could we be any more confusing? 3-4 tiers of phone. At minium offer the flagship & midrange tiers on every major carrier. These random models & changes doesn't help with word of mouth advertisement.

The numbering seems to follow a decent enough formula:
The 1st digit is the Level of item series 5xx, 6xx, 7xx, 8xx, 9xx, 10xx, 15xx (25XX Tablet)
The version is the 2nd number (Lumia 800, 810, 820)
The 3rd number is a Variation of the same level device (920, 925, 928)
It's possible the 929 is a high end variant of the 92x series that is larger but the internals similar, possibly a bit boosted for the larger screen (think the 620 and 625)
It seems to me that Nokia are using the version 2 number for the Windows Phone 8 release (including GDRs 2 and 3)
Next year I reckon we'll see the 530, 630, 930, 938, 1030 etc devices come out when Windows Phone 8.1 comes out

My at&t friend ( same butthole who told me that gdr2 will be available same day as Lumia 925) told me that the Lumia phablet is slightly bigger then the note 3 and will have a window case that enables wireless charging didn't understand that. He couldn't give me any more details.

He's probably right. The window case is similar to what the sg4 has. Its a window where you can ser your lock screen covered in plastic. Like a peephole. Irs handsome. And I can totally imagine this case having wireless charging

Ok so now were seeing a bunch of new phones but my question is if we can should we just upgrade rather than wait for updates? Or is Ms going to do something about making sure updates are timely ? Because if not with these upgrade programs we don't have to wait for updates just upgrade . We may not have control of these late updates but we can control us upgrading to a phone with the latest updates because that is what's happening now.

I can't answer that, but just remember this: unlike in the US, the rest of the World doesn't really work heavy on the contract-system with carriers. They exist, but in Europe, for example, we buy the phones at normal full price. We, therefore, can "upgrade" at any time, we just need to buy a new phone. So I wouldn't expect MS to change the slow pace of updates.
However, being MS the US-centric company they tend to be, one never knows.

If I were in the US and my carrier allowed me to upgrade at any time without any costs apart from the minor ones of time extention of contract, I would definitely upgrade more frequently, specially if the carrier took ages to deliver updates (like AT&T seems to take)

Believe me the thought of this sucks and my 920 is sweet but if Ms isn't to worried about pushing out updates and instead pumps out new device with the latest if not future updated software than ok I'll just upgrade att next,tmobiles jump etc.xbox fans were pissed about DRM polices and it only took a week for Ms to fix things maybe not the same urgency . Makes me sad but I know its the truth

But you are paying the difference in your contract. It's not itemized on your bill and carriers won't say how much of your bill is to pay for the "subsidy", but they admit it's there.
That's why these early upgrade plans on AT&T and Verizon are such rip offs. You are basically paying full price for the phone, plus the hidden fee inside your contract. Almost paying for the phone twice.

You can not buy flexibility, and the freedom to choose your own carrier, my friend. Quite happy with being carrier-locked free here in India. Small price to pay. But DCJBS is abaolutely right in each of his points. MS is US-centric. However, with their new focus on devices and services, I expect them to change. Maybe they will start using the Nokia stores in the other countries to sell MS hardware. They just need to change the board outside the stores, in case they can't license the Nokia brand.

So for me here in the us , if Ms is not to concerned about there updates and seem more in the interest of putting out new device with the latest updates then I'll just upgrade . I'm on att so for me and how untimely updates are for wp8 the next program is perfect it should bee a slogan " don't wait for updates .... Just upgrade". I love my wp8 but if I have choice to update my phone but my carrier is taking its time to update then I'll just buy the phone with the latest. The more I think about it Ms is aware of these programs !

How likely is this 5" device to be exclusive to Verizon and no other version of it with the same 5" be released in the rest of the world (say the L1050/1200)? Well, assuming that the L1520 does have 6" instead of 5"

The capacitive buttons are still not centered.. but at least there's a microphone to make up for it.. and the gap isn't as bad as on the ugly 920 and 1020. I really wish they would make the Lumia 900 with Windows Phone 8.

Lumia 920? Imo is by far the worst example of N9 design.
Quite fat, still quite large compared to N8 and Lumi 800. Flat screen and raised from the body. Looks and feels horrible.
No wonder that device sold pretty much nothing, while Lumia 800 took 74% of the sales.

I really don't think this is a 5" or larger phone. Other than the additional tiles, which is the result of a 1080p screen on any size device, I see no evidence that this is that large. In fact, looking at the earpiece, the size of the Nokia and Verizon logos, and the distance between them and the sides if the phone, looks comparable to a 920,25,28 to me. Maybe 4.5 to 4.8?

If I've offended someone, it was never my intention. I was just stating my disappointment towards the image I saw. Its because I'm such a fan of the Nokia's simple and almost organic designs. That's all.

Now that I think about it, this is more of a true successor for the 920, its the tic whereas the 925/28 are the tocks. Basically better screen, ois, higher res sensor, looks like a larger aperture allowing a somewhat larger sensor for pixel size, all in a thinner but slightly larger body compared to the 920. That's what I think. Looks really nice, hope they offer colors. Verizon seems to only want white and black.

I don't see how they can call this device the 929 and the att device the 1520. It doesn't make any sense in the Lumia product line. Some information is messed up without question. The 9xx lumias are 4.5" devices. 1xxx is amazing cameras. Below 900 are lower end devices. Presumedly 1100-1500 are the larger screened devices. 5", 5.5" and 6".

This is the same way folks felt with the tmobile variant of the lumia 820 dubbed the 810. Quite honestly, i think exclusive devices are allowed to deviate from the norm if need be. For all we know, Verizon may have deemed it fit to stick to this naming scheme.

i had already whined alot about Nokia deviating from their well publicized norm of only having 3 number device models. If we are going to be technical, actually doesnt make sense having the 1020 and 1520, but ey, doesnt hurt to deviate.

Nokia seems a little confused about it themselves. Remember how the 1020 was actuall the 909 until the last minute? Still even self identifies like that in the firmware. I'd like for these numbers to make sense but they've broken them before (Lumia 810 - numbered like a WP7.X device, is actually a 82X series phone. Whaaa?)
There might be less sense to the numbering convention than we think haha.

I would not be surprised if a part of the issue is that devices numbers 1XXX are exclusive to AT&T only for the time being. It's likely slightly smaller than the AT&T 1520 with similar features. I expect a Verizon 1020 variant early next year. I think this one will be 5-5.5" for the screen, but should be a nice device.

No, but it's a much larger module and harder to fit in the phone. Also it's no good as a video flash (Xenon is burst-only) so you still need an LED alongside if you're going to offer low-light video recording. So I guess it's a specialist feature depending on the target audience of the handset.

❗❗Warning❗❗ Parasitic Comment... And off subject, but it's Sunday...
If you don't know already.. WP7x is EOL❗... I'm in the process of having my Samsung Focus framed as wall art... It's the end of a era.. But, WP7 most likely won't be missed to much,, rather respected for setting WP's foundation.... Like it or not this is reality.

I'd like to see some nice advertising commercials from carriers like the new iPhone 5C one ATT just released as well as the nice one for the Moto X. The carriers IMO are being biased towards windows phone with the advertisements just like app developers are. Windows phone is more than just a camera. It has more real world usage scenarios than any other mobile OS out there and I think it should be highlighted.

The 5C commercial seems to push color. Um...ok. The one that cracks me up is the Droid max which highlights its battery standby time. Innovation clearly lies with Nokia. Though the ATT commercials for WP generally suck.

Yes, but it presents a nice product! you and me may be spec animals, but the average consumers are not. 95% of people who own the iphone only purchased them for looks alone, not what it can do. Apple has built their brand based upon presentation; that why they aren't battling Android by adding endless features or even the top spec out there.

again, how many average users outside of us tech geek know about GPU? None, and as mentioned, they are not battling spec for spec or feature for feature against Android, who by far has more features than any other mobil manufacturer out there. If you have a nicer GPU with less RAM, couldn't this even the playing field as far as processing speed?

iPhone has less RAM because the applications need less RAM to run, which is actually a good thing in terms of processing power as less bytes need to travel between the CPU and RAM. While RAM can be limiting, it usually is not, as you can control the data-flow of most apps (especially GPU -heavy like games), and load them as needed. The 64-bit processor of the 5S is very much spec-whore bait, so Apple does extend a hand there too. Even if the majority of their marketing efforts are not spec -oriented, they offer very good specs, so the iPhone user does not have to worry about it, and can trust their phone to perform very well.